Playoff par gets Mid-Am for Storck Early birdie run rallies City Am winner to title

August 19, 1998|By John W. Stewart | John W. Stewart,SUN STAFF

Larry Storck, who started the last round five shots off the pace of record-setting Pat Tallent, ended it by making a two-putt par from 40 feet on the first extra hole to capture the 11th Maryland State Golf Association Mid-Amateur championship at Caves Valley Golf Club yesterday.

Storck mounted an almost immediate challenge with three successive birdies beginning at No. 2, and, coupled with a Tallent bogey, made the turn just one stroke off the pace.

Tallent fell out of the lead for the first time when he took a double-bogey six at the 333-yard 16th, but a Storck bogey at the 17th, followed by two pars at the 18th, sent them into overtime.

At the first hole, in the second playoff in tournament history, Tallent's drive landed on a finger of rough on the left side, but he had to stand in a bunker with the ball well above his feet and his shot came up just short of the green. From the fairway, Storck's shot just made the crest of a hill and stayed on the green's front edge.

Storck, from the Country Club of Maryland, finished 70-70140 for the 6,629-yard course, and Tallent, a Congressional CC member whose front-nine 30 on Monday was a course record, shot 65-75140. The tournament quickly became a two-man show.

The pivotal hole was the 16th. Tallent had gone in front by a stroke after hitting the flagstick at the 198-yard 15th, then nailing his birdie from 17 feet. At the short par-4, Storck drove in the left woods and Tallent was within 80 yards of the green in the right rough.

Storck pitched backward to the fairway, put a 135-yard shot 15 feet past the cup and made the putt for a spectacular par. From the rough, Tallent's wedge slid under the ball and it rolled about 30 yards. He was still short after a fat shot off the wet fairway, pitched past the hole, then needed two putts for six.

He trailed only as long as it took Storck to make bogey from a fairway bunker at the 17th. At the 18th, Tallent was 20 feet above the cup in two, and Storck went from fairway bunker to green-side bunker, and with a superb 75-foot sand shot, to seven feet.

Tallent missed his winning birdie and Storck, wielding his 46-inch putter like a magic wand, coaxed home his curling putt.

Earlier this summer, Storck won the Baltimore City Amateur and finished second in the State Amateur.

MAPGA Championship: Ron Cooke, professional at the Kiskiacg Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va., shot 3-under-par 67 at the Cascades GC for a two-day total of 136, and took a one-stroke lead into the final round today at Hot Springs, Va. There are 10 players within five strokes of the leader.